Kirk. Obama criticizes Trump for further dividing the US

On the very day Charlie Kirk was murdered, Barack Obama took to social media to react to the act he deemed "despicable violence" that had no place in American democracy, adding that he was praying for Charlie's family that night. This Wednesday, he returned to the issue publicly and warned against the White House's official stance—which prioritized targeting a "common enemy."

"The central premise of our democratic system is that we have to be able to disagree and sometimes have really controversial debates without resorting to violence," he argued while speaking at a conference for the Jefferson Educational Society, a nonprofit organization in Pennsylvania.

He then shared the intervention on YouTube , recalling that the country is, in his view, "at an inflection point", but that political violence "is not new" and "has happened at certain periods" in US history.

"There's been some confusion, I think, around this lately, and frankly, coming from the White House and some other positions of authority that suggest, even before we know who the perpetrator of this evil act was, that somehow we're going to identify an enemy," he said, warning that the public debate that followed the Republican's assassination could serve to deepen political and cultural divisions — with Trump further dividing the country instead of working to unite people.

He wasn't just talking about the armed attack on Kirk, but also the one against Melissa Hortman, the Democratic congresswoman from Minnesota who was assassinated in June , leaving a warning: political violence happens on both sides of the coin.

The White House responded to Obama's comments by calling him "the architect of modern political division in America."

"Obama seized every opportunity to sow division and pit Americans against each other, and after his presidency more Americans felt that Obama did more to divide the country than he united," White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said in a statement quoted by The Guardian .